Hello all. Recently acquired this kind of struggly hinoki for free at a local nursery and had some questions about its health and such. Did some research and found the basics, but nothing on the whiteish yellow parts of foliage. Thanks for reading, first post here rather novice, any info on current condition and/or how to help be as healthy as possible would be greatly appreciated -Jacob

Keeping options open as far as what to do style wise, just want keep it going first.

the yellow and pale bits will all fall off - this happens naturally nearly every year and i find the more you let a branch grow and extend the more inner bits will drop off. This means if you leave the branches alone and do nothing they will become bare inside and basically a hinoki will never bud back.

I treat mine like a juniper and never pinch foliage but use the scissors to cut out the strong center part of the growth so energy directs inwards - if you make the inner shoots grow they wont go yellow and drop off. Every so often i cut branches back to these stronger inner shoots.

They love water, absolutely love food and grow roots very fast - repot every 2 years if you want it growing as quickly as possible. Top growth is strong so prune harder here to keep lower branches healthy.

have fun with it but keep on top of pruning or it will be so bare the only way to make a bonsai image will be to coil and snake the branches up to make the foliage look close to the trunk

appalachianOwl wrote:Hello all. Recently acquired this kind of struggly hinoki for free at a local nursery and had some questions about its health and such. Did some research and found the basics, but nothing on the whiteish yellow parts of foliage.

There is a chance that you have a Mareseii cultivar (i.e., chamaecyparis obtusa 'Maresii'). Its normal, healthy, growing foliage tips (buds) are white to cream-yellow depending on how much sun exposure it has (more sun = more yellowish). When kept in dappled shade it can be spectaular - deep green foliage with little white buds dotting the canopy.

just looks to be new growth to me. seeing it was free i would have taken it too,but it is going to be hard to find a styling route for this one. as stated before backbudding is almost nonexistant on hinoki so shortening those branches will be impossible. you can take cuttings in spring and root them ,heal cuttings (taken from the base of the branch) work best

Thanks so much for the info everyone, greatly appreciated. Got potential to be an unsual short bunjin-ish looking thing, or looks to be an ontion for a taller double trunk. Good practice either way think am just going to talk with it over the winter bout what it would like to do